The makers of "G.I. Joe" committed the ultimate act of consumer treason in the early 1980s, when they replaced their line of foot-tall soldiers with a series of 3 3/4-inch action figures. Nearly three decades later, it still makes me mad just thinking about it.

Perhaps this generation of children will feel the same way about the G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra video game, which costs $60 on some platforms, and then offers about $3.75 worth of entertainment. There's little about the game that isn't underwhelming.

Video games based on movies are usually disappointing. But G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra is a video game based on the movie that looks like a video game, so it seems like it had a fighting chance at being mediocre. Instead, this Joe offers gamers mostly frustration, with the few pleasing action elements becoming overly repetitive within the first hour.

The G.I. Joe video game covers some of the same ground as the movie, with familiar villains, plot points and cringe-worthy dialogue. The game adds quite a few new locations that would have been uncomfortable for the real-life Joes (Dennis Quaid probably has a "no lava field" clause in his contract) and several characters that were in the 1980s cartoon that didn't show up in the movie.

While the game sounds bad and looks even worse, the problems are mostly with the execution. G.I. Joe has a fixed camera, which can't ever be adjusted with the controller. This leads to constant frustration, mostly in the form of sneak attacks from a few feet behind you that are impossible to see and make it hard to return fire. The environments are equally wonky. At one point in the game, a field of flimsy-looking reeds acts as an impenetrable barrier.

Only slightly less infuriating is the lack of variety in the game. You run, take cover and hold down the fire button, frequently getting a chance to go crazy in an Acceleration suit, which allows a few seconds of near-indestructible running and gunning. The boss battles are a nice break at first, but it's quickly apparent that there's nothing in G.I. Joe that you didn't see in better games such as Contra more than a decade ago.

What's good about G.I. Joe? The Acceleration suits. And the different characters have a nice range of weapons and hand-to-hand combat moves. You can choose your favorite (Gung Ho seems to blow the most stuff up) and play cooperatively with a friend.

Or you can spend more than $50 on a game that doesn't make you feel like a sucker for buying it. G.I. Joe is a huge disappointment ... and knowing is half the battle.